Jerry
Woodfill’s role in the American Lunar Landing Program was unique in the sense
that he, alone, held the position and responsibility of Apollo Spacecraft Warning System
Engineer. This job evolved by virtue of necessity, management decisions, and
employee opportunities resulting in transfers out of NASA or to other NASA
groups. Initially, Jerry’s assignment was simply the project engineer for
Apollo’s switches, gauges, and display and control panels. However, included
was the command ship’s warning system. At the onset (pre-1966), another
engineer was responsible for the lander’s warning system.

As
a result of a reassignment of NASA employees to the command module and lunar
module’s display and control hardware, Jerry lost that responsibility and was
left with simply the Apollo mother-ship’s caution and warning system. Then, the
lander’s warning system engineer chose to leave NASA for a better paying job
with a private aerospace company. This led to Jerry receiving the lander’s
caution and warning system so that he, in all of NASA, was the responsible
project engineer/manager for the entire assemblage of Apollo Spacecraft warning
system hardware.

Because
the mother-ship was in its early engineering stages (Block One), Jerry became
responsible for fixing, redesigning, and analyzing warning system performance
during testing and early flights. Likewise, he served in this role with regard
to the lander’s alarm system. While there were many astronauts, flight
controllers, and engineers dealing with countless Apollo issues, only one
engineer had the Apollo Spacecraft Caution and Warning leadership, management,
and technical responsibility throughout the program’s early and ensuing years.

The
task became especially formidable subsequent to the tragic Apollo One fire,
January 27th, 1967. The lander’s alarm system needed thorough
review and re-design to assure post Apollo One systems were safely upgraded to
avoid just the kind of failure which killed the Apollo One crew. Apollo
spacecraft failure was not an option. To this end, Jerry became the chief
manager/design lead for Apollo warning system engineering changes. These assured
astronauts would have alerts for potential failures both in space and in ground
testing.

Because
of the uniqueness of Jerry’s experience, program managers, astronauts, flight
controllers and system engineers regularly consulted Jerry about the warning
system’s workings. This required Woodfill’s review and editing of system
schematics and crew procedures. Failure criteria were Jerry’s responsibility.
So that he authored astronaut instructions for their in-flight operational
“check-list”. These warning system procedures served the crew well in the event
of spacecraft failures. Though Jerry never achieved supervisory-management status
in the NASA organization, he always remained a respected expert on spacecraft
malfunctions and corrective actions. This led to being regularly consulted on Moon
missions as the “expert” on spacecraft failures. Predictably, he monitored
Apollo 11 and Apollo 13 at his station adjacent to Apollo Mission Control in
the engineering evaluation room. On both missions, he was consulted from his
station supporting Mission Control, the Apollo Mission Evaluation Room (MER) of
the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC). For this effort, he shared in the
Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded the Apollo 13 Mission Operations Team.
Indeed, his warning system was the first alert of the explosion that might have
taken the astronauts' lives in April of 1970.

At
the conclusion of the Apollo Moon program, Jerry was assigned the role of
authoring the Apollo Experience Report dealing with the Eagle’s
Caution and Warning System. Based on his knowledge and experience with its
history, design, operation, and management, Jerry captured the exciting story
of designing a warning system to protect the Apollo astronauts.
(NASA Technical
Note: TN D-6845, June 1972, LUNAR MODULE CAUTION AND WARNING SYSTEMCHARACTERISTICS AND NUISANCE ALARMS)